Lifestyle

Former Restaurant Owners From New York Moved to Mexico After a Heart Scare. Then Both of Their Grown Kids Followed: “Dad, I Just Rented a House for a Year”

By Erica Coleman · November 3, 2026

Claire and Sandy spent 13 years running restaurants in upstate New York. About a decade ago, they traded that life for a small town in Mexico. They did not expect both of their grown children to follow.

“We moved here 10 years ago, and every year we have more friends that are getting more jealous because we’re having so much fun down here,” the couple said at the start of an interview posted Nov. 1 on the YouTube channel Almost Retired in Mexico (@AlmostRetiredinMexico), hosted by Brighton.

Their story is told in the video “They Retired to Mexico. Then Their Kids Followed!”

“Claire is a chef, and we owned 3 French restaurants in the Albany, New York marketplace,” Sandy said. The couple said they had vacationed in western Mexico for years through a timeshare. Around 2014 or 2015, they said, they looked at more than 300 listings online, toured about 10 houses on their next trip, and signed a contract on a house in Todos Santos, in Baja California Sur, the next day.

Then came the health scare. In the spring of 2016, Sandy spent three weeks in the hospital with a heart illness that the couple said was caused by a virus. Restaurant leases and liquor licenses were coming up for renewal around the same time. The couple said a cardiologist told them, “if you do this business, continue, you’ll be dead in 2 years.”

“So I said, we’re done,” one of them recalled. Their son was leaving for college, and they moved south.

The second surprise came in 2020. Sandy said their daughter, an event promoter in New York City whose business was hit hard by the pandemic, asked him to find her a place to rent for a month or two. It stretched to three months. Then she called again. “Dad, I just rented a house for a year,” Sandy recalled her saying. He said she had sold her car in Boston and was moving down. She has since found a partner and built a business there, he said.

Their son, Alex, later gave them a year’s notice that he was coming too, the couple said. They built him and his girlfriend, an artist, a garage with living space that grew to about 700 square feet.

“We were fortunate enough to have our children move down here,” Sandy said, adding that it is very unusual.

The couple also shared strong views on health care. They advised building a relationship with a local hospital, which they said offers a yearly membership, rather than keeping a U.S. insurance plan. They said they had not paid U.S. premiums for seven years and had saved for emergencies, so when Sandy spent five days in intensive care in Cabo about three years ago, they paid the $25,000 bill from that fund. That is their experience, not a recommendation.

For anyone with Medicare weighing a similar move, Medicare usually doesn’t cover health care while you’re traveling outside the U.S., according to Medicare.gov, which says that in most cases you pay all of the costs. The site notes that some Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policies may cover emergency care abroad, and that Medicare drug plans don’t cover prescriptions bought outside the U.S.

The Social Security Administration says benefits might be affected when you leave the United States, and it offers a Payments Abroad Screening Tool to check whether payments will continue.

“Great story, great attitudes!” one viewer commented.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. The couple’s account of their move, health care and costs is as they described it in the video and could not be independently verified. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.